1915 WW1 diary gives account of second Christmas truce (war, general, France)
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A diary from a World War One soldier has come to light providing details of a Christmas Day truce in 1915.
Pte Robert Keating's account explains how a ceasefire was held by some men despite orders from officers who did not want a repeat of a 1914 truce.
A military historian said the account contradicts reports from the time which said a second truce did not take place.
It has been donated to the archives of Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF) and is being transcribed at Wrexham Museum.
Quote:
Military historian Lieutenant General Jonathon Riley, chairman of trustees for the Royal Welch Fusiliers which has a regimental museum at Caernarfon Castle, said there had been other accounts referring to a second Christmas truce but the "emergence of the Keating diary has completed the jigsaw".
He said Keating's diary explained the ceasefire was initiated by German soldiers and followed by a contingent of British soldiers on the Western Front near Laventie, France, despite their orders.
"It has given us a complete picture of what happened over an extensive part of the line," he said.
"For a private soldier he gives us a really valuable insight."
Some informal Christmas truces lasted for months as some German and some allied units came to unwritten gentleman's agreements regarding their day to day activities. These agreements could include no sniping, rifle fire barrages restricted to "morning and afternoon hates" and not truly aimed, no firing at defensive wiring parties attempting to re string barbed wire, and patrols in no man's land staying out of each other's way.
These agreements were by no means in unison along the front. Batallions on both sides rotated and could be re-palced by more combative Guards, Highlander or Chasseur batallions etc. On some occasions, the agreements were suspended, then renewed when the more agreeable opposing unit rotated back.